The Tell-Tale Heart
by pari106
Summary: This is how Max *should* have reacted to learning Zack was alive...according to me, anyhow ;) This is complete...for now! (2 chapters)
1. Default Chapter

The Tell-Tale Heart  
by pari106  
  
pari106@hotmail.com  
http://www.geocities.com/pari106/damain.html  
  
Disclaimer: Fox, Cameron, Eglee…etc. Don't sue.  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Summary: This is how Max *should* have reacted to finding out Zack is alive…and how she *would*   
have reacted, too, if they portrayed her right… (Oh, and the hints of M/Z are all me :) I'm sorry…I   
couldn't resist. Should I continue with an M/Z sort of angle with this? Or just keep it brother/sister   
between them?)  
  
  
  
Chapter 1  
  
She was really cocky the first day.  
  
"State your designation."  
  
"My name is Max!"  
  
…cold, hard metal closing in; crushing down on her, rising up at her at awkward angles. And Renfro's   
cold voice, droning monotonously in the background.  
  
"State your designation," she ordered again.  
  
"Kiss my transgenic ass!"  
  
Yeah, real cocky.  
  
She wasn't so cocky after she'd spent three whole days in that little metal box with no light. By then the   
hunger pains began.   
  
After six days, she couldn't tell if the voice in the background was a recording, or if she was just   
hallucinating now.  
  
State your designation.  
  
"Bite me!"  
  
State your designation.  
  
"Fuck you!"  
  
State your designation.  
  
"Ma…  
  
State your designation. State your designation. Stateyourdesignationstateyourdesignationstateyourdes...  
  
"…please…"  
  
  
  
**** ****  
  
  
  
Max knew Manticore's reindoctrination methods. She knew their routine. So she supposed nothing they   
could think to do to her should be much of a surprise. She knew the drills, the tests, the propaganda; she   
knew the long hours, and the repetition, and the achy body at the end of the day. She knew because she'd   
done all this before. She woke up early and went to bed late, spending whole days in strength testing, and   
spending her nights in a dark, quiet little cell, not much bigger than the one they'd used to try and teach her   
to forget her name.  
  
They never used psychoactives on her. Max supposed they didn't a see a reason to. They knew there was   
nothing she could tell them; she didn't know anything. Not like Zack, who'd held the X5 rogues together;   
who'd known every contact number, every face, every psychological profile. Sometimes, Max wondered if   
Renfro made it all that much worse on Max because she didn't know anything. Because Zack *had*   
known things, but he had died so that Max could live, taking that knowledge with him.  
  
Zack…  
  
Max knew Manticore's reindoctrination methods. She knew the things that would happen to her during the   
process. But the things you never expect – not even when you *know* they're coming - are the ways   
Manticore reindoctrinates psychologically…  
  
Max hadn't expected Zack to die.  
  
Lying there in her cot that night, tears running down her face, Max's thoughts returned again, as they   
always did, to her big brother. She couldn't get him out of her mind. Not with exhaustion, not even with   
thoughts of Logan, which had grown fuzzier and fuzzier the longer she spent away from the real world.   
The world in which she'd loved Logan and he'd loved her. In this world, it was hard to remember that kind   
of love.  
  
But she remembered another kind of love. The love that had always been there between her and Zack. The   
love that had grown up behind cold, gray walls just like these, back at the institute in Gillette. That kind of   
love, apparently, she would never forget. Because now Zack was dead, and she felt it more strongly than   
ever, with every beat of their heart.  
  
Their heart…  
  
Tell-Tale heart. Where had she heard that before? Logan had mentioned it...once, but she couldn't remember in what context. The tell-tale heart, constantly beating, but only loud enough for the guilty to hear... It was from an old horror story, or something.  
  
Max had traced the scar on her chest over and over again, imagining that she heard Zack's heart beating there beneath her   
fingertips. Sometimes, she was thankful to have at least that little bit of him next to her. Sometimes she   
wished she could tear the damned thing right out of her body. She hadn't expected that sacrifice. She   
hadn't asked for it; she hadn't wanted it.  
  
She hadn't wanted Zack to love her the way she knew he did. She'd never wanted those feelings from   
someone she considered a brother. She hadn't wanted the complication of those kind of feelings with   
someone like Zack. Now she would give anything to see him again like he was that night in front of the   
fire; the night they'd stayed at Logan's cabin and had planned to escape to Canada.  
  
He'd sacrificed for her then, too. Again, without her having asked; without her even having imagined he   
would do what he did. He was always sacrificing for her. And she had never done the same for him.   
She'd never listened to him, or done what he'd said. She lived with that regret now.  
  
And she relived losing him every day.  
  
Her drill instructors tormented her with his death every day. They accused her of leading her CO into an   
improbable situation. They flashed pictures of him from after the shooting, covered in blood, for   
punishment whenever she refused to state her designation or recite a particular line of propaganda. They   
also showed her pictures of Ben and Tinga, accusing her again and again of causing their deaths.   
  
They'd done things she didn't like to think about after they were done.  
  
Max thought they'd done everything they could. And if they hadn't, she didn't think she could stand up   
under any more. The starvings, the beatings…the pictures of Zack…the isolation. During drills, she was   
always sent to spar with the soldiers who were, likewise, being supervised and punished after a   
transgression. Which meant that she was sparring with soldiers from all series: X-5, X-6, X-7. And every   
one of them had taken Renfro's cue in treating her like the outcast; the enemy. Sometimes, the things they   
said were even worse than those pictures the drill instructors used to torment her.  
  
But just when Max thought she was numb and empty from what had been done to her…just when she   
thought Renfro would forever delight in her torture…something happened.  
  
Renfro seemed to back off.  
  
Max wondered if she had decided to go easier on her prisoner, or if this was just a way of setting her up for   
the next hard blow.  
  
It was a little bit of both…  
  
  
  
**** ****  
  
  
  
"What's the matter, 452? Still recuperating?"  
  
The bastard sneered down at Max as she lay, pinned there beneath him on the mat. She didn't want to   
breath heavy and give the ass the pleasure of knowing he'd winded her, but, fuck, her lungs burned…  
  
"Bite me!" Max sneered back, managing to sound threatening with her last bit of energy. What she really   
wanted to do, was break down and cry…  
  
Then the soldier said the wrong thing. And Max was rejuvenated.  
  
"Must have given you a lousy heart," he quipped, before pushing off of her.  
  
Max blinked.   
  
In a movement, Max threw her whole body upwards in a leap, her two feet connecting firmly with her   
opponents jaw. With her legs, she grabbed hold of his ankle and brought him down to the mat. With a   
satisfying "oomph"…and did she just hear something crack?…Max had the upper hand.  
  
They could ridicule her if they wanted. But Zack would never have stood for that shit.  
  
"Our heart works just fine," she whispered in his ear before releasing him. The soldier looked up at her   
with wide-eyes…maybe because of the way she'd just felled him, or maybe because of the crazy way she'd   
said "our"…Max didn't know. Maybe she really was losing it. Coming to her feet, she finished her opponent with a swift, stiff kick to the solar plexus.  
  
"452!" came the sudden bark. Max came to attention. Shit! Now what?  
  
"The director wants to see you."  
  
The director. Renfro. Great.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"State your designation."  
  
The familiar command. Max's mind flashed back to the isolation tube and the week she'd spent   
remembering how to be a number.  
  
"X5 452!" she responded without hesitation, back straight, eyes forward.  
  
But it didn't work this time.  
  
Renfro just stared at her a moment, before that warped, little smile of hers began to creep onto her face.  
  
"You don't fool me," she finally said, quietly. "I know you're just playing along."  
  
The two women stared at each other, Max not knowing exactly what she was supposed to say to that. She   
hated the small, irrepressible spark of fear Renfro ignited within her.  
  
"Come on…I want to show you something."  
  
Renfro led the way across the room, and Max followed as she was told.  
  
If she had known what was coming…she probably would have risked punishment instead. Seeing what lie   
through that window was worse than any punishment Manticore could have ever dreamed up… And   
Renfro knew it.  
  
She stood by the window with the oddest look on her face. Was that pride? Sick amusement?  
  
Max walked up to her, totally unaware what would come next. And when she reached her   
side…everything else disappeared but what she saw behind that window.  
  
Max felt as though the world had just tilted. Horror filled her, choked her. A scream froze in Max's throat.   
Her knees would have buckled, so she gripped onto the glass wall before her… And beyond…  
  
…wires…metal…monitors…  
  
And amidst it all…  
  
In the background, Max vaguely heard Renfro's words.  
  
"Your brother Zack," she stated simply.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
A/N: Okay, it's already been established I suck at naming things. But I liked the title for this. Has it been used before? Does it fit the story? Please let me know what you think. 


	2. Chapter 2

The Tell-Tale Heart   
by pari106  
  
Disclaimer, rating, etc. on chapter 1.  
  
  
  
Chapter 2  
  
'Oh, God, Zack…'  
  
Max suddenly felt gripped in a vice tighter than the isolation tube that had held her for that first week of her   
reindoctrination.  
  
Zack…  
  
Dear, God, that can't be Zack. Don't let it be Zack. Please, please, not Zack…  
  
"He's been so useful to us. His liver and kidneys went to an X5 wounded on a mission…"  
  
Zack. It was Zack. Zack's alive! Zack…  
  
Max felt the room spinning. Her heart raced…the heart raced. She didn't know whether she wanted to   
scream or be sick, or, most likely, both.  
  
Fuck, what had they done to him…  
  
Zack…if that was Zack…lay on a table like a cadaver ready for dissection. He was restrained at his ankles   
and wrists, and secured in some sort of body harness. His face… All X5s were designed to be beautiful,   
seductive. Zack had been, as well. But that attractive face wasn't visible now, hidden under some sort   
of…apparatus, riddled with respiratory devices. His arms were pulled out at his sides, and various wires   
ran into his body from a cluster of machines circling his bed. His chest…  
  
One, long, red scar spanned the length of his chest. His skin was pale. He wasn't moving. Not at all. But   
she'd said he was alive…Renfro…  
  
Then Max saw. Zack's face was covered…but one of his eyes was not. And it was open. One blue eye   
watching her. The skin around it looked scarred, older than Max remembered. She remembered baby blue   
irises full of life…these eyes had darkened almost to black, they were dull and lifeless…  
  
But alive. The eye found her and focused on her face.  
  
Max felt a horrified sob work its way up her throat, and she had to bite her lip until it bled to keep the   
sound from escaping her. A tear trailed down from her wide, brown eyes. She was caught in Zack's gaze.  
  
Could he see her? Did he recognize her? They said he shot himself. She'd *seen* him shoot himself.   
How could he still be alive? How much of the Zack she remembered was still alive in that shell of a strong,   
healthy body?  
  
Was he even conscious? Was he in pain? Did anyone ever talk to him? Look at him like anything other   
than a science experiment? Was he afraid? Was…  
  
'Jesus, Zack, I'm sorry….I'm so, so sorry! I love you, Zack. Please, please forgive me…Zack…'  
  
Max tried to communicate to Zack with her eyes, signaled him through the window with the placement of   
her palm against the window in front of her, as if she were reaching out to him, trying to touch him…  
  
"…his heart, as you know, went to you," Renfro was saying.  
  
Max's eyes closed. …liver…kidneys…heart… Fuck, they were using him as some sort of living donor.   
How the hell could these bastards do this to her brother? To Zack? He was so strong; so smart. He was   
stronger than any of them. Damn it, he was a good person, even if he wouldn't admit it…  
  
In her mind, Max saw the security camera playback roll forward once again, as she had before during one   
of her propaganda sessions. She saw Zack standing there like she remembered him, alive and strong,   
defending her prone figure from Renfro and the doctors and guards around them. He'd been shot in the   
shoulder, and was covered in blood, but his aim didn't waver as he pointed his gun at their enemies…  
  
He leaned down to tell her something…  
  
His words couldn't be heard over the tape, but Max heard a voice in her dreams. She didn't know if it was   
her imagination, or her memory, but she could hear Zack's voice in her mind now. 'Fight them, Maxie.   
Promise me you'll fight them…'  
  
Then he stood, pointed the gun to his head, and…  
  
Max's eyes flew open.   
  
"I wanted to give you a chance to say goodbye," Renfro was saying now. Max heard her, but her eyes   
didn't leave Zack until the shutters had closed between them, totally separating him from her view. Neither   
of them blinked until those shutters were down.  
  
Then Max turned to Renfro.  
  
"He's being moved to another facility," she was saying as she strode over to a desk.  
  
Max watched her movements, but they didn't really register in her thoughts. In her mind's eye, Zack still   
lay there before her…  
  
"We have some very interesting plans for him," the sadistic bitch was musing, not realizing that the woman   
standing a foot away from her was reviewing all the lessons she'd ever learned on how to kill a woman   
with a spoon…  
  
"One thing's for certain, though," the director said harshly, turning back to her prey.  
  
The prey that would soon become predator.  
  
"You're the reason he's there," she told Max coldly. "Don't you see, 452?" she spoke passionately,   
flipping through a pile of pictures, lying at her side, as she did. "You're poison. You destroy everyone you   
love…your brother Ben, sister Tinga. And this man."  
  
Renfro held up a picture of Eyes Only's trademark blue eyes, framed between the streaming freedom feeds   
that were his other calling card. Those were Logan's eyes.  
  
The pictures circled through Max's brain. Ben…blood trickling down his face…Ben smiling at her…the   
sound of his neck cracking, as he lay there in her arms while she sobbed over him. Tinga, telling bedtime   
stories to her son…hanging, lifeless in the tank where she died… Logan, and how good it had been to see   
him that day she'd driven up to Foggle Towers to find an ambulance parked at the door, thinking he'd shot   
himself…And Zack.  
  
Zack filled her mind.  
  
"I know you had some sort of relationship with him. You're still holding onto some idea that you're going   
to be with him again, but that's not going to happen. He thinks you're dead. That's why he's been causing   
so much trouble…"  
  
Zack as a boy; Zack the first time she'd seen him and realized who he was. Zack in front of the fire,   
smiling; Zack in chains, as they led him away from the Seattle police department. Zack crying in her arms   
after she'd helped him escape from Manticore…  
  
Zack shooting himself so that she could live.  
  
"We're going to find him. And we're going to kill him. And then you'll…"  
  
'Fight them, Maxie. Promise me you'll fight them.'  
  
There was no warning. If Renfro had been looking for one, perhaps…but she hadn't expected this. She   
hadn't expected there to be any defiance left in this one. 452. Max. Her name was Max! She wasn't just a   
number. Her brother was Zack. Zack was still her brother; he was a man, not a bunch of spare parts.   
Renfro knew she still felt this way, but she didn't expect her to have the strength to do anything about it.   
She didn't bother to notice the predatory gleam that had come into Max's eye, or the tense stance she had   
suddenly taken. She didn't notice the way Max watched her movements, like an animal watching its prey.  
  
She had no idea what was about to happen until Max pounced.  
  
The guards had been watching her, of course. Max knew this. But neither they nor their guns could have   
deterred her from her course of action. She didn't really see them. She didn't see their weapons. All she   
saw was Zack, lying there, one eye open…  
  
'Fight them, Maxie…' The words took on a rhythm in Max's head, repeating again and again like a   
mantra. Steady, pulsating. Like the beating of a drum. Or a heart.  
  
Renfro screamed. Max had the satisfaction of hearing her scream before the bullet found her.  
  
One hand twisted in the evil bitch's platinum hair, the other closed around her throat. But before she could   
squeeze hard enough to crush her throat, the shot fired off. And hit the arm whose fist had been about to   
close around Renfro's throat.  
  
No!  
  
No, she was so close…  
  
The shot stole the strength from Max's arm, and another shot came from the other direction, hitting her in   
the thigh, ruining her balance. Renfro was slipping free.  
  
But Max couldn't let her go. She couldn't even feel the gunshot wounds. This had been her breaking   
point. But she would be damned if she would go down without taking that bitch with her.  
  
When Max lost her balance, both she and Renfro fell to the ground, and the other woman started to inch   
away across the floor. Max reached for her again. She could vaguely hear Renfro screaming at the guards   
to hold fire, but the words meant nothing to her. She rose on her haunches to pounce again…  
  
But didn't get the chance.  
  
Two more guards had burst into the room, and these had high-powered tazors.  
  
The charges hit Max and robbed her of the last of her energy, causing her to topple over on her prey.  
  
"Jesus Christ, get a doctor in here all-fucking-ready!" Renfro screamed, pulling herself out from beneath   
the now incapacitated X5, and trying desperately to regain her trademark calm.  
  
A swarm of guards were at her side, offering assistance and apologies for firing without her orders, but she   
waved them off without a second glance.  
  
She felt for 452's pulse. It was there, strong and steady. She'd live.  
  
"Get out of here and find that doctor," she ordered the nearest guard, tired of their hovering. The men   
complied, nearly tripping over themselves on their way out the door.  
  
Renfro was left to collect herself and steady her breathing. She eyed 452 and the shuttered window to the   
room where 599 was kept. Perhaps she'd just found a button she was better off not pushing.  
  
She considered this thought as she sat there, accompanied by only 452's troubled breathing, the hum of the   
machinery around them, and the strong, steady beat of a heart…  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
A/N: Okay…was that cheesy? It was, wasn't it? Oh, well, there it is. I might continue this later on, after   
I've finished a couple of my other stories. What do you think?  



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